What Now Kid, Which Way Love?
by eosdawnaurora
Summary: Most of my old Kakashi/Sakura oneshots are collected here, good and bad. Various ratings. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
1. Save Me From What I Want

Notes: Future!fic, Sakura is 23, Kakashi is 36. Naruto does not belong to me. This originated as a continuation of my fic "Laughing With A Mouthful of Blood" (which if you should happen to track down, is solid Sakura/Sai porn. You've been warned)

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"Seventeen cold showers couldn't wash away..."

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The Icha Icha series was his solace, his protection, and his escape. And today it was failing him.

Kakashi didn't drink much. He didn't smoke. He didn't sleep around. He didn't have a painkiller or amphetamine habit like a few shinobi he was aware of. Really, his only indulgence was the set of unfinished series of porn novels written by one of the greatest, most heroic perverts Konoha had ever produced.

There hadn't been much time to read today, and he was glad to finally have some quiet time. He was going to sit back in his favorite tree of all, right on the edge of the practice grounds and enjoy Icha Icha Tactics for the four-hundred-and-sixty-seventh time, and watch other people get beat up, until it got too dark to see the print.

But his eyes kept losing focus, and he couldn't concentrate on the page in front of him. This was bad. If he couldn't even drown himself in Icha Icha, what else was there that he could do? The place his mind kept going was driving him mad. Kakashi set the book face down, open on his chest, and folded his arms behind his head. Staring up into the shifting pattern of green, black and white from the softly rustling branches and leaves above him, he allowed himself to think about it.

Two days ago, it had hit him like a kick to the face, the precise moment that he realized what she was doing. And she was doing it on purpose. She had to be. If she wasn't that meant he was... He groaned, and slumped down a little further on the branch.

This wasn't the innocent little crush he'd had on his former-student, because she was just that good, and just that adorable and so blessedly normal before he introduced her to the joys of PTSD.

Sakura knew him well enough by now, after ten years of working together in various capacities, to understand how he operated. Even though he thought he hid his external reactions better than the Hokage hid the keys to her private sake stash, she could read him. This was regrettable sometimes; even though it was great not to have to talk too much to be able to communicate on missions, she knew when he was on his game and when he wasn't.

She also knew how to catch him off guard and remind him that, oh yes, she was very much all grown up. All legs, lean and strong, subtle athletic curves that drew his eye along her body like a soft luscious wave. She liked to be noticed, to be admired. Even if he'd been caught looking once or twice, he knew better than to touch her.

That path would only bring a deeper madness. He didn't want that. He didn't want a number of things. Kakashi had watched it happen to any number of previously intelligent and reasonable shinobi over the years, he really didn't want to emulate one of those tied-down, lovesick idiots, pining over a woman he couldn't have.

Everything had been in perfect balance before she had come along and leaned on the scale. Albeit, accidentally. He hoped it was accident. No one accidentally had sex in public.

Why couldn't he just ignore it - her? Impossible. Was she really rubbing this relationship in his face? Now he was starting to question his own judgment. This was bad. He couldn't possibly be jealous. Impossible.

It was none of his business what she did outside of work, and if he despised her boyfriend, it had nothing to do with the fact that the two had been fucking so often, half the time he couldn't tell their scents apart and had to go by chakra alone.

Though he maintained a congenial facade when on missions, Kakashi had lost interest in Sai, not long after he'd been forced to take him into his team. He'd done a thorough background check and mentally noted the two easiest ways to take him down, if necessary. Sai was trained in Root, and whether he understood it or not, he was the late Danzou's man body and soul.

He could not, would not, ever say it aloud, but he thought Sakura was not just too good for someone like that, she was too good for anyone he knew.

If she'd chosen Naruto he could have borne it. Or someone else he knew well and respected, like Shikamaru, or even Tenzou, it wouldn't be so bad - annoying but bearable. But of all the men in all of Konoha she had to choose from, why did she choose that one? It made him feel vaguely ill. And angry. And he had to admit it. Jealous. He was jealous that that little shit was fucking her.

From all outward appearances, she didn't even like Sai, but she was still fucking him like he had the name of god on the end of his dick, every time she got the chance. Most recently in a movie theater that he just happened to also be occupying.

Admittedly, they might have realized he was there in the otherwise empty theater, if he hadn't been laying across the front row of seats on his side. Part of his mind refused to believe though, that she didn't know. It was possible that she could have faked being so embarrassed.

No. It wasn't her. He was jealous, and stupidly in lust with his former student. It had been manageable before, because he didn't have the sounds of her panting and groaning over another man ingrained in his memory. It was not an ideal way to aquire an audio track for his fantasies of fucking her himself.

Kakashi realized, after a few moments, that the faint popping sounds he kept hearing were from his knuckles, as he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his gloved fists at his sides. He sighed, forced his hands to uncurl and glanced down at the field below, seeing genin in the distance sparring, falling and flailing, sometimes laughing. How very stupidly, similarly adolescent he felt right at the moment.

Drastic action was required. The only solution he had come up with though, filled him with pure and persistent dread. Regardless of what resulted from the conversation he intended to have with her, nothing between them could ever be the same. It already had changed beyond anything he recognized. He didn't know what he was going to say. At all.

He closed his book and sat up, tucking it back into his pouch. Gripping lightly the sharp edges of one of the kunai he also kept there, he cut through the hard calluses on his fingers, and used the resulting blood to summon Pakkun.

The pug appeared before him in of a puff of smoke, looking sleepy, irritated and in a crouch, as usual. "What's up boss?"

"I need you to go find Sakura and tell her to meet me as soon as she's free. I'll be at-" He mentally ran through places which would be appropriate - Ichiraku, or maybe the bar down the street from the Hokage's Tower, perhaps the teahouse near the hospital. "Actually, just have her meet me here," he said.

"Can I tell her what it's about?"

Kakashi shook his head. "She'll know what it's about."

"Everything okay?" Pakkun eyed him warily, knowing Sakura's temper, and disliking Kakashi's vagueness.

"It will be."

"Whatever you say, just make sure you dodge in time," he said, and leaped down.

He was starting to run out of relaxation exercises when she appeared, two hours later. Sakura was wearing her work clothes, red zippered top, her medic gear and black shorts, as if she was retaining a small hope that he just wanted to spar, or that they might be going on some sort of unusual mission that would only require the two of them.

"Yo!" he said, waving at her as he jumped from his branch.

She was already red-faced and showing her teeth in what was not quite a smile, smelling of vanilla and jasmine and iodine, and a little too much of ink. "Ha ha! Kakashi-sensei, you wanted me for something?"

The smile was what did it. He was disarmed. He lost his nerve. "It's nothing important. I just wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" Her face flushed deeper scarlet, and he wanted to laugh, oh and maybe to scoop her up and bang her silly back at his apartment, but that was never going to happen.

"I, ah, should have teleported out, once I realized you two needed some privacy. I have to admit I was sort of in shock," he said, scratching the back of his head and smiling awkwardly under his mask. "You must have thought you were alone."

"I - Of course we did. I should have looked better. I'm sorry, too. You must be disgusted."

Yes, but not for the reasons she thought. "Why? It's not like I'm some saint." He flipped the novel out of his pack. "I don't read these for ideas of what to do with my girlfriend - though if I had one, they might be useful. It's damn good porn, but it's still porn," he shrugged.

Sakura laughed, and smiled, and crossed her wrists like she did when she was trying to be innocuous, looking up at him with those huge jade eyes. "I think your girlfriend, would be a lucky person," she said, and swept a few strands of pink hair out of her face. He was reminded of the younger, less-worldly person he had known.

His heart thudded in his chest, and Kakashi realized his eye had gone a bit too wide. He regretted letting her see it and wanted to melt into the trees behind him. "Why do you think that?" He hadn't expected her to come back at him with a compliment.

She looked away for a moment, glancing at the field where two kids were going all out fighting each other, grunting and shouting and slashing the underbrush. "I've read the books. After years of staring at the back of them, I was curious. Besides, I knew they had to be pretty good if Naruto thought they were boring."

A woman after his own heart, indeed. He chuckled. "You didn't answer the question." Not the way he wanted her to.

"It doesn't matter if I do. Your relationships are all exactly the way you want them, they are where you want them. What I think doesn't matter, Kakashi-sensei."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Aren't they?"

"I'd make a few small changes, but yes I suppose you're right." She was right.

She shrugged, exasperated, but with affection in her eyes. "It would take something like this to get you to talk to me about yourself."

"I just wanted to-" Wait. Why would she want him to talk about himself?

"To make sure what happened wouldn't interfere with work," she said, finishing his sentence, shaking her head. That wasn't what he was going to say, and he felt the smallest spark of anger.

"Yes." No. She was at least half-right. He leaned down, his mouth level with her ear. "Though, if you ever want an in depth demonstration of pages 232-238 in Icha Icha Tactics, I can make the time," he said.

Her eyes flew wide as what he said registered, her agile mind quickly picking up what he referred to, and her cheeks flared red again, mouth open slightly as she stuttered his name.

Kakashi didn't have time to see or hear anything else, leaving her behind in a puff of smoke. It could go either way, heaven or hell, but if he had played this right, it would make the other night's ordeal entirely worth it.


	2. No More Reservations

Note: Sakura's 23 in this, Kakashi 36, and the song in this fic is completely fake, so don't look for it. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

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Music was audible through the door of Sakura's apartment. The fast-paced song which was playing had been blaring out of entirely too many radios of late. It was horribly catchy and prone to popping into his head at inopportune moments, since he couldn't seem to get away from it.

He could hear her singing rather badly along with it. Kakashi suppressed a laugh.

"...I'm just getting started with you. Hey you know, I'm really always gonna be true. Now it's time and we're just movin' along. Hey you know, I'm a girl who always is strong..." Her voice was not improving the lyrics, either.

It might not be wise, sneaking in, just to see if she was dancing. They might be dating, but she wasn't adverse to threatening him with bodily harm, and she was well capable of backing up said threats if he pissed her off enough.

Ah, what the hell, why not? He had the key after all.

In her bedroom she really was dancing. Her hair hung wet in tangled strings, and she wore nothing but a pair of black panties, which did nothing more than accentuate her nakedness. His breath was caught in his throat. As much as he wanted to watch – maybe for a few hours or so – they did have reservations at a pretty nice restaurant.

Slipping up behind her, Kakashi put his hands over her breasts, and pressed his face into the soft curve of her neck, waiting for her to squeal.

She didn't.

Somehow, instead he ended up on his back on her bed, while she crouched over him, her wet hair dripping onto his face. She was grinning like a devil.

He hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her hi-cuts, and smiled back. "Should I cancel the reservations?"

"Yes, I think we're eating in."


	3. Regret

Note: Set about 10 years in the future from the current timeline. I do not own Naruto.

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"So what was he like?" she said. "I mean Obito."

Kakashi was on his back, half-dozing as her hand traced lazy circles on the scar-decorated skin of his abdomen. He opened his normal eye, and saw Sakura was laying on her stomach in the darkness, looking up out the open window at the clear night sky. The breeze brought with it the scent of treated wood, and the dango shop down the block, mingling with that of their sweat.

He had been waiting for this question, among others, since the first time that her eyes had slid across the picture next to their own on the window ledge, years ago. At that point she'd been a mere girl with a good handle on her basic skills and he'd been more concerned with the two troublesome boys.

His concerns were very different now.

The other two had asked long ago, almost immediately after seeing the image of his younger days. No, he hadn't always had the Sharingan. Yes, Obito was really the one who gave him the eye. Yes, he was dead. No, the girl wasn't his girlfriend, she was gone too, along with the Yondaime in the Kyuubi attack. And then he'd find a way to change the subject.

"Mmm. I don't know how I feel about you asking about another man while you've got me like this."

Sakura laughed. "Well it is true that dead men can't talk back." Seeing her expression in the faint light, he was very tempted to pounce on her, to try and make her forget she had asked. Instead, he turned on his side to regard her more seriously.

"If I tell you, you're going to regret you ever mentioned it," he said.

"Why?" She turned over to face him, the cover slipping down her back.

Something about the way the moonlight was thrown across her form, made him regret he'd led her into another question. He started sliding his palm softly over her belly, up between her small breasts, to cup one of them, thumbing her nipple. "Because I get to ask you an exceptionally personal question in return," he said leaning closer, teasing her with a kiss near her ear, and grinning with wicked intent. She couldn't very well kick him out of his own bed.

"Okay, fair's fair. I don't have anything to hide," she said petulant, shivering as he withdrew his hand.

He chuckled, "Well then, let me think," he said, trying to think of the most abbreviated way to explain the complicated relationship he'd had with his dead teammate. "My first impression of him was that he was an idiot, a crybaby, weak and completely spoiled. For a long time, I hated him. He still had his family, while I only had a grandmother and a couple of dogs. I thought he was careless of the laws of the shinobi, while I felt I had to be perfect. We didn't understand each other at all. Obito probably said it best, the two of us were like oil and water, almost up to the end."

"So what changed?" she said, listening intently, idly rubbing the top of one of his feet with her toes.

"On the last mission we were on together, things came to a head between us. He said some things that made me question all that I had done up to that point. I was put in a situation where as team leader I had to make a difficult choice. Obito disagreed with my choice, and in that case he was right. My blunder cost me an eye, and him his existence." Kakashi paused. He hadn't really answered her question had he? "Truly, he was brave and kind and strong. By the time we understood each other, had I lost him."

Her face was sympathetic, but not pitying. They both had lost many people important to them over the years. She just had the luck to be born after the last great war. "So sad... Thank you for telling me," she said.

Oddly, it didn't hurt as much as it used to. More than twenty years had passed. "Alright, it's my turn then," Kakashi said. He hoped she wouldn't get angry with him, but she had said 'fair's fair'.

She wriggled against him pleasantly, "I can't imagine what you don't already know about me."

Chewing on his lip for a second, he considered how to put it to her. "Why me?" he said.

"What do you mean?" she said, frowning.

"You heard me. Why me over all those other talented, younger, slightly less screwed-up guys?"

Sakura settled in a bit, throwing her hair back over her shoulder, and sunk back next to him, propped on an elbow. "I'm not sure how I can-"

Kakashi shrugged, "I can wait until you figure it out. I've got all night." He ran his hand down her side,

She made a pained face. "I just-" Sakura paused and a little mewling noise escaped from her throat. "Well, I guess it's because of Sasuke really," she admitted. "After he rejected me for that last time, he mentioned you had a thing for me. I didn't believe him at first, but I thought about it and then-"

Satisfied, he nodded to himself. "Hmh. I thought you were sizing me up, that day at the spring festival. I heard you put 100 ryu on me to win that stupid race Gai made me enter with him."

"How did you-" Sakura's mouth opened and closed in shock. He hid his glee at managing to get her flustered again. So cute.

"I have both eyes and ears, my love." And a large number of gossipy acquaintances among the village shinobi.

Her eyes were narrowed. "And Ino-pig has a big mouth," she growled.

Sighing, Sakura shook her head. Her frown curved up into a smirk, and her shoulders relaxed. He liked the gleam in her eye when she looked back at him. She pushed up tight against his body, sliding her leg up over his hip. Kakashi rolled with her weight onto his back, and she settled her slim form over him.

"I'm with you, because I would regret it more if I weren't," she said. "No more questions."


	4. Summer Reverie

A/N: Kakashi and Sakura are about 10 years older in this. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

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They met that night near a small temple at the edge of the crowds. The summer festival was already in full swing, and it took very little to incorporate themselves into it. She went for the sweets booth first, of course.

Sakura had priorities, and Kakashi let her lead him, since he was here more for her than for himself. Well that, and he'd been drinking and was more than a little tipsy.

It was a peculiar shade of red she wore; not magenta nor brick-colored, not the color of poppies or tulips, not scarlet. Close to the color of blood really, with white cranes and pink flowers bordered in a honeycomb pattern. Crimson perhaps. It suited her. He was willing to bet she'd shopped for weeks for the kimono. Knowing Sakura, she'd been planning a little every day since he'd invited her on this outing a month ago.

She was beautiful from the top of her pinned-up pink hair, to her green-painted toenails. He felt rather shabby himself in his seldom-worn charcoal-grey yukata, until he saw her glowing smile aimed at him, and then didn't really think about himself much after that.

Sakura, gliding in red on the bridge, laughing with life before all their friends and acquaintances in the summer night. The lanterns faded everything about them into a soft and serene otherworld, as if the night were painted on a fan.

He nodded at the other faces, those familiar and not, echoing their greetings and the warm wishes for them both. 'Had he asked her to marry him yet?' pried not one, but three different busybodies, whom he smoothly brushed off for them both. Sakura seemed terribly amused at this behavior, behind her blushes.

He knew it now, in this little pocket of safety, he was in love with her. He wasn't terribly concerned at the moment if everyone knew it as well.

Life was brief – a violent dream, barely remembered upon waking to the next. He could have this, with her, if only for a while. It would be enough. She was too good for him to marry. In long-term he'd only cause her grief. He could die on a mission and she might never even know what happened to him. What right did he have to claim her?

But could he bear it if someone else did?

Such desperate, disconsolate thoughts he was having, but he often tried not to hope. Love, life, friendship were transient. He knew that. Even loss was not permanent, there would be others like him others like her – just like new leaves appeared on the trees in the village every spring. The best thing was to grasp the good things while they were in front of him. Savor them like perfectly cooked rice on a winter morning. Yes, that would be best.

Sakura swung around to kiss him on the cheek, breaking his train of thought, leaving him feeling as if he'd been punched.

"Are you drunk?" she asked, looking concerned, bordering on irritated.

Trying to decide whether or not it was was wise to answer her question, Kakashi pulled her in close, not admitting nor denying the empty bottles of sake he'd left behind at another, slightly earlier gathering. She could probably smell it on his breath anyway.

He leaned them against the railing, surprising her. She knew he didn't approve of public displays of affection, but Kakashi supposed there was just enough of a shadow that they'd be politely ignored. "I believe this is your fault. You've driven me mad, little girl."

She laughed. "Or maybe you've been breathing in the fumes from someone's opium pipe. Why is it when you're happy, your eye always gets so morbid?" she asked, touching his masked face. She'd probably touched him more than any other person he knew at this point. Hands of a healer - these were a pair he wouldn't deny, couldn't avoid. Needed.

Why indeed? "To keep things balanced. Yin and yang, dark with light. And just looking at you is more than enough to make a man drunk." He watched her blush until her face nearly matched her kimono. Oh yes, he had a way with words tonight.

"Silly. At least I'm old enough to drink with you now. Too bad you didn't wait," she grinned sly and inviting.

"You don't drink." He rolled his eye at her. Although the idea of Sakura getting falling-down drunk had its own humorous appeal. Kakashi wondered if she was as violent when drunk as she was when sober. Maybe not so funny.

"No, but I do have options now, don't I? Lots of options." She tugged at the fabric covering his neck, a not so subtle hint she wanted to press her lips against his skin, not stretchy black cotton.

"Maybe not as many as you think," Kakashi said, narrowing his eye. Perhaps he would marry her. Sakura had never hinted that it was something she desired, at least not to him. Maybe she was waiting for him to say something.

"Eh?" she said, puzzled, leaning back.

He pulled her back into the darkness and nuzzled her forehead. "I'm not going to tell you, unless I think you need to know. You should understand that by now." He wasn't about to tell her that if it were up to him, he'd have banned all the other men from this gathering so he could keep them from stealing glances and lusting after what was clearly his. He'd had to practice amazing amounts of self-control these days, though he thought he hid his feelings well. She still saw through it all.

Sakura looked at him doubtful – then mischievous, slipping a folded fan from her red silk sleeve, only to tap it against her lips. "Hmm. Tell me one thing."

"What?"

"Why did you invite me here tonight?" she asked.

He wasn't going to let her bait him – although it could lead to interesting things if allowed. He simply grinned beneath the mask and said, "So that when we go next year, you'll have something to compare it to."


	5. Perpetuation

A/N: Naruto and all associated characters are Kishimoto's. Kakashi is thirty-six here, and Sakura's twenty-two, JFYI.

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Kakashi's hand drifted down over Sakura's hair softly, moving down to her back as they lay in the sunlight, their legs tangled together on her couch. The thin blanket was laying mostly on the floor now, the rest of it covering her otherwise bare rear, while she covered most of him with her body. It was pleasant to have these kind of moments, warm and peaceful, with just enough of a breeze to stir the curtains up to tickle at their toes and quell the summer heat.

She passed the apple she'd bitten from to him, and he took a bite himself. His jaw twinged a little. The memory returned to him sharply of one of his targets landing a kick on him a few days ago. Sakura's ministrations had taken care of most of the bruising, among other things. Having a medic for a girlfriend had it's advantages. For some reason he seemed to attract kunoichi with a healing bent. Rin had always been patching him up too. She'd been motherly. Not like Sakura. He almost felt jealous at the thought of his green-eyed lover with her sensual hands on someone else's body, even for healing.

When had he become so possessive? He leaned up a little, to catch her mouth with his. It certainly hadn't happened overnight. Kakashi passed the apple back. That she'd grow into such an important part of his life had been unfathomable ten years ago.

Kakashi knew he'd have to work to keep her. They'd passed that feverish early stage that seemed to mark every relationship. She was constantly surrounded by the brightest and the best at the hospital, and certainly there were far more handsome men in the village. He'd started to consider cutting back on the number of long-term missions he took. The only person he had anything left to prove to was Sakura. The arguments they had were about time. Always about time.

"You look so thoughtful, what is it?" Sakura said, as she leaned back, crunching contentedly.

"Mmm. You. Spending more time with you."

She grinned wickedly. "Good. I was hoping you'd say that."

He plucked the apple from her grasp and he let it roll off his hand to thump to the floor. An unnecessary distraction. Right now, Sakura had all of his attention, and she would always be far sweeter.


	6. If You Don't Know Ladders, Don't Play Go

Note: Set about 10 years in the future. I don't own Naruto.

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Within the game of go, there existed a proverb, _'If you don't know ladders, don't play go'_. It was a game that Kakashi had never had the time to learn properly, just well enough to know what a ladder was in game context, and so he took the phrase at face value.

Thus, go, though he knew it was the sort of thing he could be quite good at if he played it everyday, and joined the small but enthusiastic group of go players in the village, it remained one of the hobbies he did not pick up.

Mostly in favor of less useful, almost idle activities, like taking on Gai's innumerable, idiotic challenges, and becoming extremely good at bluffing his fellow shinobi in poker. Aoba called him an unreadable monster, whether his mask was up or not, and his comrade even wore sunglasses indoors and at night - in some lame attempt to look unflappable or mysterious. None of the others had been taught to play poker by the Yondaime.

The reason for such an unusual proverb to come to mind had nothing to do with hobbies or games, though. Well, he supposed to some people it might be just that sort of thing, but he had never been one of them. It was more to do with how out of his depth he knew he was right at this moment in his life, about this one thing that he wasn't quite ready to look straight in the eye.

This wasn't the sort of situation he could just say to himself, "Well, I'll never be very good, because I don't have the time to put into it, so why bother." Honestly, he wanted to kick his own ass for even thinking it.

Sakura was late.

She was more than late. Two months late, but she hadn't said anything.

The dates lined up, and he'd been home enough that she had to know he knew. She might be a finely-honed killing machine, but the village could also set it's clocks and calendars by the mechanical regularity of Sakura's period. He'd always mentally kept track, so he could plan around it.

She wasn't one of those women who had a lot of pain, or wanted sympathy, but she did get more irritable. If he wasn't on a job, sometimes it was just better to find Gai and play full-contact table-tennis all day, until one of them broke a paddle and then go home and make her dinner.

He started to remember how weird Minato-sensei had gotten about seven months before Naruto had been born, with all the hair-ruffling and saying i'You'll understand, one day,'/i over and over. Kakashi's own mind was already taking some pretty strange turns.

He remembered his father, whom he'd made peace with years ago, and hadn't really thought about much of late. He thought of his friend Asuma, and of the cute little girl who hadn't gotten to meet him. At least she wasn't an orphan, like so many people he'd known over the years, including himself.

The past ten years in Konoha had been peaceful enough that it finally wasn't unusual for a kid to have two living parents, and even a grandparent hanging around.

When Naruto had become Nanadaime, he'd already changed the world for the better, but Kakashi couldn't forget everything that had led up to those changes. Hundreds of thousands of people had died, and the survivors, country to country, were maimed and scarred inside and out and living with the memories. He knew plenty of guys who used the bottle cure for it.

And even though this was called peacetime, they still had to fight. It wasn't just bandits and thugs. There were still small factions who kept the old grudges alive, and not everyone was keen on the idea of abandoning the ninja system. The weapons were still there, along with the deadly jutsus and and the highly-specialized men and women who had nothing left inside of them but violence and greed.

Which brought him back to the fact that Kakashi was still, in his own mind, a warrior, and had always intended to die one; in fact, already had done. Now he had to do what so many others he'd known and loved had not managed to do, and avoid dying permanently before he could teach this new person all the things they'd taught him.

It was with this in his mind he arrived in front of their apartment building. Sakura was up there, maybe not waiting or even thinking about him right now, but possibly trapped in her own cycle of panicked thoughts. She was pregnant, and he was fairly confident he was the only man she was sleeping with. She was a medic, too, and if she'd let it get this far, he was fairly certain she intended to keep it.

He hefted the brown paper bag full of groceries in the crook of his left arm and opened the door to the stairwell with the other. If she didn't bring it up, maybe he'd wait till they were at the table to say something. Emotional topics and cooking didn't mix.

This wasn't a game, and it didn't matter if he didn't know the territory, he had to move forward, and plan and adapt to the situation. This wasn't any different than any other part of his life.

The door was already open, and as soon as he turned his head to the left, he could see Sakura sitting at the kitchen table with her head in her hands, being shoulder hugged by her slender blonde girlfriend, Ino. They both looked up at him at the same time, Ino planting a firm suggestion in his mind with her eyes for him to tread carefully, and Sakura with an expression of faint surprise. She hadn't been crying, but her face was flushed.

"Yo." He grinned at them, nonchalant, and made his way to the kitchen.

"You're home early," she said.

"I finished early," he said, shrugging. "Do you want to stay for dinner, Ino? I've got enough for three." He began unpacking the groceries onto the narrow counter; fish wrapped in paper, a bunch of green onions, a loaf of bread, a bottle of rice wine, some little aubergines, miso, a bottle of prenatal vitamins.

Sakura's eyes widened, and Ino pursed her lips. "Oh, no, no. I bet you two probably have things to talk about," she said, waving the invitation away, and elbowing Sakura in the shoulder. "Don't you?" She laughed nervously, and then whispered, "I'll be at the flower shop all morning, tomorrow," before making a speedy exit.


	7. Consolidation

Note: Naruto is not mine.

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"You can't tell me you really need these anymore," Kakashi said, plucking a faded, thoroughly dessicated bunch of dried flowers out of a paper box that had been in her closet. Sakura had recieved the original, fresh bouquet from Sasuke the same year he'd come back. To tell the truth she'd forgotten where she'd put them.

"They're sentimental. It's a girl thing, I guess," she sighed. They were cleaning out her apartment before they moved in together into the new house. It was probably the hardest thing she'd done since she left her parents home. "I don't _need_ them." Sakura watched him crumple the box into a trash bag that was already half full of her accumulated memories. She was making progress. She hadn't winced this time.

It was taking a good deal of her willpower, and a generous helping of Kakashi's dry and occasionally derisive comments to part with certain things. Among them, a big stuffed bunny Naruto had won for her at a festival, a stack of fashion magazines and solved puzzle books, that were at least two years old or more, and an otherwise beautiful sword with a big notch in the blade. She did the honors for a hairless, much-loved doll herself.

Seeing her hesitation when they'd started, he had made her ask some hard questions. First, if the village were being evacuated, what two things would she miss the most? That was easy enough. Her photo album, and the quilt her mother had made her. So those were the first things to go into the box.

What did she need to get through an average day? The average week? Suddenly, her wardrobe was cut in half, and the clothes she no longer wore were bagged up to be tossed or given away.

They took a few breaks over the course of the day. At one point, Kakashi seemed to derive a good deal of entertainment, by asking her if she wore a particular pair of daisy-patterned panties any longer, while stretching them out to display the holes in both front and back. A short wrestling match ensued, as she tried to grab them away from him. Sakura really couldn't say who had won, as they were both laughing so much by the time her clock prompted them to get back to work.

It took them till well in the evening to finish carrying the last bags down to the curb for the waste collector to pick up in the morning. Shinobi or not, they were both exhausted.

"Am I staying or going?" he asked.

Really, after all this time did he still feel the need to get permission? "Staying," Sakura said, grinning wryly. "And don't forget, your place is next."

He shrugged, "That's alright, I don't have that much to go through."

"That's what I thought when we started here," she said, throwing a dust rag at him.

"We'll see." Kakashi said, catching it.


	8. Girls Do Gossip

Anko nibbled the top dumpling of her skewer of dango as she sat down next to Kurenai. "I don't get it," she said, leaning back against the table. "I really don't understand what she sees in him. He's just so weird." She pulled the card out of her jacket again, waving it in front of her friend. It was a simple white wedding announcement with beautiful black script flowing down the length of it. If Anko ever got married it wasn't going to be some fancy-shmancy ordeal with kimonos and sake ceremonies and expensive notecards. Although it was seeming less likely it would happen at all, these days.

The names of the pair of jounin on the card apparently weren't too surprising to Kurenai. "Well, whatever it is, it must be enough for her," said the red-eyed kunoichi, sipping her tea. They were watching the rest of the lunch crowd mill past, while they sat together by the open front of the restaurant. It was sunny out and warm for mid-spring, and her nose was full of the delicious smell of green tea and fresh dango.

Unsatisfied with Kurenai's dismissive tone, she said, "He's so old for her. The man's got to be almost forty. She was one of his students, you know. I bet they've been messing around since she was a genin."

"Tch. You have a dirty mind. Kakashi's not like that," Kurenai said, shaking her head. Anko was glad Kurenai had had more time for herself now, since her son had graduated from the academy. Now they could do lunch once or twice a week. Too bad she couldn't come out drinking the way she used to, but Anko supposed if she had a child, she might be a little more conscientious.

"How do you know?" Anko knew from experience that simply because a man was put in a position of trust, such as teaching and protecting a youngster, it didn't mean he wouldn't break that trust. Although it wasn't really fair to compare anyone to Orochimaru. And she had to remember that she had loved him terribly even after all those awful things he'd done to her. The thought pricked her mind that perhaps somewhere deep inside she was jealous of the pink-haired kunoichi's happiness. It almost put Anko off her dango.

Kurenai shrugged. "I know for a fact he was dating that blond secretary from the Hokage's tower the whole time he was assigned a genin team. I think her name is Akisa. Anyway, she dumped him right after the invasion by the Sand, because she didn't like him being away so much."

Anko made a face. "What a stupid git," she spat. "How do you find all this stuff out?"

"Ahaha. Well, the price of dating a civilian I understand, is that they don't have the incentive of having to worry about being put on the same team to keep their mouths shut." Kurenai grinned mischievously.

"It still doesn't change the fact that he's a complete flake. No matter how talented he is. How many years has he been wearing that mask now? I mean come on." Every nin had a style, a distinguishing mark, a crest or something, and she supposed that was his. The mask gave away Kakashi's personality by the mere fact that he tried to constantly hide his face. Men were so dense. Anko had never been forced to spend any time with the jounin outside of a work situation, so she wasn't even sure if he ever went without it.

The reason she had gotten the announcement was that Anko was acquainted with Sakura. The younger kunoichi had studied her cursed seal years ago, to try to remove it. The medic-nin had been helping her more for that Uchiha's benefit, but at the thought of being released from the last of Orochimaru's influence, Anko had been more than happy to assist. At least she didn't have to go to the wedding like Kurenai. Maybe she'd send them a gift. A small one. The seal was gone after all.

Kurenai laughed. "Well, that is a little weird, but I've noticed he doesn't wear it all the time anymore. Asuma says it was to hide his girly face. I guess he's not feeling so girly anymore."

Anko snorted with laughter, almost choking on her tea. If anyone would know about something like that, it would be Kurenai's husband. "Sakura finally made a man out of him." She couldn't stop laughing.

Her friend gave her a dirty look. "Oh, don't be so mean."

She managed to catch her breath, and took another sip, clearing her throat. "Kurenai, my dear, that is what I do. I am your outlet, remember?" They had discussed this long ago, over shots of vodka, how Anko said out loud all of the bad things that Kurenai was thinking. "Besides, I-"

Kurenai pinched her elbow. "Shh."

A tall, narrowly-built man in jeans and a tight-fitting black turtleneck had just walked in, heading straight towards the counter. She didn't get a good look at his face, but the silver hair and a hitai-ate slumped to the side were unmistakable. What were the odds? It looked like he was getting his food to go. For Sakura maybe? She hoped he hadn't overheard them. How embarassing.

The two friends looked at each other and waved to Kakashi when he turned around carrying his order. "Hello, ladies. Taking a break?" he said. His smile was very warm, and reminded her of someone, though she couldn't think of who.

If he weren't so odd, he really would be a very pretty man. "Congratulations," said Anko.


	9. The Silent Treatment

A/N: Future!fic set about 12 years from the current story. Naruto belongs to Kishi.

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Carrying a basket of fruit, Naruto made his way down the much too familiar halls of the village hospital. He always liked to come see his friends whenever possible when they were laid up. He knew just how boring it could get, trapped in a hospital room – even though he healed ten times as fast as normal nin. It was hard to escape early when the rest of the staff were shinobi as well.

Sasuke was already there, standing outside the door of their friend's room. "Don't go in there," he said. He was leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets. He wasn't wearing his jounin uniform, so he had the day off.

By Sasuke's expression, Naruto didn't think he meant that Kakashi's condition had worsened, though his injuries were serious. Five broken ribs, a ruptured kidney, a collapsed lung, fractured vertebrae, among other injuries. According to Sakura, the list went on and on. The man had taken quite a fall. If his hand hadn't already been broken, he might have avoided at least half his trauma.

Naruto frowned. "Why? Kakashi's awake isn't he?" Their former sensei had returned from the mission being carried by two other shinobi.

"Yeah, but Sakura's in there. She's got her white coat on. Buttoned up. There could be blood."

Naruto snickered. He didn't know exactly when Sasuke had grown a sense of humor, dry as it was, but much had changed in the five years since he'd been restored to the village. "I'm glad I'm not him right now."

"Really, it's making me nervous. She's not yelling at him at all," said Sasuke.

"And she's not crying?"

"Nope."

"Shit. I guess he finally crossed the line. She's six months pregnant, you'd think he'd at least be considerate enough to take some low-rank missions for a while." Naruto shook his head. What could Kakashi possibly be thinking? It was bad enough to leave his wife alone so often, even if she was just as bad with her sixteen-hour workdays at the hospital.

"Yeah, but think about it, they don't pay as well."

Taking a seat on a chair across from the door, Naruto crossed his arms, his face baffled. "What's he trying to buy? A mansion on the bluff? Sheesh." Kakashi had always lived on the edge though, it didn't necessarily mean anything. Considering how many S and A-rank missions the man had under his belt, he ought to have enough in savings to be able to support his grandchildren.

Sasuke shrugged. "Well, if he dies he probably wants to leave her something. Or maybe he wants to retire. Who knows. Like he ever talks to us about his future plans."

"I guess that would make sense. I never thought about it that way." It was weird enough thinking that Kakashi would be a father and Sakura a mother.

"That's because Hinata already takes care of you. Idiot."

She didn't take care of him. Well, not really... Well, then again, maybe she did. "At least I- Ah!" cried Naruto in surprise. Sakura had just slid the door to the room open with a highly audible 'thwack'.

And then closed it calmly behind her.

"Oh, hello boys. Come to visit?" she said in a deceptively cool, sweet voice. Her smile seemed genuine as well, but there was a lot of red in her cheeks. The two men looked at each other with nervous eyes.

"Uh, yeah. Can we go in?" said Naruto, rubbing the back of his neck

She nodded, tilting her head with another saccharine smile. "I don't see why not. Sorry, I can't talk. I've got to get back to work," she said, and strode off a little too quickly.

"Was that even human?" said Naruto.

"Moron. Let's see what wreckage she left behind."

Kakashi was laying flat on his back on the bed, arms outstretched. His torso was covered in bandages, his left arm in a splint, and more bandages wrapped his head and hands. He looked over at them, his left eye closed since he wasn't wearing his hitai-ate, and then looked away. "Did she say anything to you two?" he said, rubbing his eyes with thumb and forefinger, obviously frustrated.

"Just kind of 'hi' and 'bye'," said Naruto.

"Well that's more than I got. I don't understand why she's so mad," he sighed.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and immediately started laughing. Wasn't Kakashi supposed to be the wise one? How could he have read Icha Icha Paradise two-thousand times and not understand?

"Kakashi-sensei, let me explain something to you about women..."


	10. Fragile and Righteous

Notes: Won third place at naruto_contest for the prompt "Need". Naruto belongs to Kishi.

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If Kakashi was completely honest with himself, and that was seldom, he could fathom why it worked. Why Sakura could have chosen to love a man like himself, and he did not resist, and she did not regret.

To be so honest, required the ability to look beyond his heavily-fortified ego, behind the mask under the mask, which was so much more substantial in its construction than the physical - and had required nothing more substantial from her than simple desire for her to worm beneath.

She didn't need him. She wanted him. If he died the next day, she could accept it. She'd even understand. When he was away, she went about her duties, competent and satisfied. She didn't need him, but she wanted him body and soul as long as she could have him.

The kicker was, he was fairly certain it would kill him if she did the same. Kakashi had survived the deaths of dogs and teachers, friends and comrades, losing large chunks of his heart every time.

The dogs were always the worst. He expected the people to die, they were fragile, they were diseased with righteousness.

Dogs just were. They enjoyed life and love while it was there in front of them. With them, Kakashi was just part of the pack. So simple. His dogs didn't need him, they wanted him around, when he was gone they could accept it.

Which was not comparing Sakura to a dog, honestly, because she fulfilled his desires in ways no other creature of the earth could hope to match in this lifetime. The high price he paid for allowing himself to be human and letting her in.

Sakura was one week late coming home. One more day without news, and orders or not, he was going out.


	11. A Safe Distance

Note: Kakashi and Sakura here, are both about fifteen years older from the current timeline.

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Shown his seat, Kakashi settled quietly at the long table with members of his own family. The wood-paneled banquet hall within the Hokage's Tower was already densely crowded, smelling of too many perfumes, hair oil and a hundred cups of hot tea. His mask was too thin to filter much of the smell, but then again that wasn't its purpose. The large windows lining the hall, provided the primary source of light, and the sun warmed the backs of some and glared in the eyes of others.

It was a yearly formal dinner, honoring the retired veterans in the village, as well as those who had died. Kakashi had to attend - he had plenty of dead friends to honor - beside the fact Sakura wanted to go. All of the influential clans had at least one representative tonight, and among others he noticed within his limited field of vision the Hyuuga, the Uzumaki, the Nara... the Uchiha.

While he wore his least abused uniform, his wife and daughter kneeling on the cushions next to him each wore similar red kimonos - though Sakura's was obviously the finer garment. She looked uneasily across the crowd. Really, it didn't surprise him that her eyes had already slid down the long table and lingered on that other, before looking back up at her husband.

There was a question there for him in her eyes. About that one down there in the blue kimono with the black hair, kneeling next to the Hokage – Sasuke. Why were they all still sitting so far apart? Of course, Kakashi couldn't forget that this was a man she had loved in her adolescence. Was he threatened by the notion that she wished she could speak to, could still know and understand that man?

There were already plenty of reasons for their position at the end of the table. It was not a slight, but rather their relative economic importance to the village. The Hyuugas were always cozy with the Hokage. As was the Uchiha family, small though it currently was.

Much had changed to accommodate the former missing-nin within the village. Temporary imprisonment, parole, and eternal-probation, Sasuke was an absolute pariah, living under the unfaltering eye of the ANBU and all those who still wished him dead - Sharingan or no Sharingan, wealth or no wealth. Thus, Sasuke had become something of a shut-in, seldom venturing beyond the borders of the vast emptiness of the Uchiha compound.

The chasm between them was a side-effect.

Now, even though mostly banned from combat, Sasuke was his superior in many things, as Kakashi had always known he would be. Just as he had known Naruto would one day take on the mantle of Hokage. As he had known Naruto would bring Sasuke back and keep him as close as the other man would allow.

Kakashi told himself that he avoided the man on the simple basis of needing to protect his young family. Sakuke had so firmly rejected his teachings and embraced darkness so fervently, that Kakashi had found it difficult to trust him, even after agreeing to allow him back. The dogs didn't like the Uchiha, which was never a good sign. Sakura wasn't stupid, but emotions could be clouding her judgment. They might be clouding Kakashi's at the moment, as wistful as he was feeling.

He wondered whether this distance was also something his former student also maintained for his own safety – for his pride too, burying resentment and fear; maintaining what he had told Sakura and Naruto long ago. But it was stupid to believe that attachments made a man weak. He had to have grown out of such foolishness by now.

Of course they didn't talk about it, so Kakashi would never know. How easily the distance could be crossed if only one or the other would step forward. It was a shame. Life was so brief. And pride was so fragile.

It pained Sakura. He couldn't stop her from weaving her longing glance down between the pitchers and floral arrangements. No more than she could stop him from surreptitiously reading his favorite novel, while the latest speaker from the village council stood up and said his piece in front of the gathering.

Kakashi thought that he caught Sasuke looking as well, in that offhand, subtle way only a ninja could covertly peer at his subject. Was he wondering why it had come to this, considering how, or whether they should find out if certain bridges could be rebuilt and crossed again? Naruto certainly sat at his friend's side easily enough, but Naruto wasn't the sort to let things like propriety and polite understandings get in the way of something he needed. Friendship. Brotherhood. Love.

He felt Sakura's hand at his elbow. "Naruto will be over for tea tomorrow," she said softly.

He didn't look up. "And you want to ask if it's alright if he brings him?"

"It had crossed my mind," she said. Their daughter had her head in her mother's lap and Sakura smoothed her hand across the girl's pale hair, while her gaze tried to catch his.

He shrugged, actively staring into his book. "You don't need my permission."

"So that means 'no'."

"Let me think about it," he said, almost under his breath.

"That means 'no', too," Sakura grumbled. Their daughter, not understanding who they were talking about, looked back and forth between them, puzzled.

Kakashi looked up sharply at Sakura and fixed her with his one-eyed stare, but her answering look was just as expressive and just as stubborn. They knew each other too well. Kakashi sighed, shaking his head. "Very well. You've caught me at a weak moment."

She snorted. "You're never weak. Tell me you don't want to talk to him."

"I do. But there's nothing I can think to say."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," she said, adjusting one of her sleeves. Something about her tone of voice caught his attention.

"You've already invited him, haven't you?"

She kissed her husband's cheek. "So what if I have?"


	12. In Fire Season

A/N: Written for the KakaSaku Word Challenge #2 - naughty day - on LJ

I have no idea where the heck this came from, but the requested smut was not forthcoming, and the slice-of-life family drama was. So here you go, it's not very naughty, but it was fun for me to write. Future!fic, yes they're old and have kids.

I do not own Naruto.

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"I think that should be everything, Mom. Remember, bedtime at eight, no exceptions." A rush of motion down at her mother's feet caught Sakura's attention. "Don't hide Yukina's doll behind your back, Natsuki!" she hissed, and watched as her pink-haired, demon spawn of a daughter reluctantly returned the toy to her younger sister. She was never like this when Kakashi was around, damn it.

Sakura's eyes flicked back to her mother, hoping she didn't look too frazzled or embarassed. "Natsuki's class starts at six o'clock sharp, make sure she doesn't forget her weapons pouch." Sakura glared at her eldest again in warning, and made another incremental backwards step to the front door of her parents' home. "I love you, be good for grandma and grandpa," she said. "Thanks again, Mom."

"Don't worry about it. We haven't had them over since last week. Tell Kakashi to get better," her mother said, scooping up white-haired Yukina, who was sucking her thumb and clutching her doll like her life depended on it, while giving her sibling the death stare. Natsuki waved half-heartedly, mischief already stirring in her dark eyes.

Sakura grinned, as it might have been too tight to be described as smiling. "Of course he will, I'll be taking care of him. Bye bye."

Once the door was shut behind her, it was very difficult not to take off running across the rooftops. Sakura waited until she was two blocks away, leaped up to the branches of a nearby tree, and kept jumping tree to tree, roof to roof, until she reached the hospital.

Now all she had to do was spring Kakashi. He would have to be conscious by now.

Greeting the two junior medics who were on duty, she went behind the registration desk and looked over the patient log. They'd stuck him on the second floor, which wasn't a problem. It meant he'd have his own room.

She went up, hoping and praying she didn't run into Tsunade. Her shishou might be in semi-retirement, but she still had a strong presence at the hospital, and it wouldn't be unusual for her to be visiting patients in the recovery rooms. Without a doubt, if the woman got even the most remote hint that Sakura wasn't just visiting her husband, but intended to take him home for treatment. Well, it wouldn't be pleasant.

Why did having a little time alone together have to be so damn difficult?

As she reached for the chart dangling on the hook outside his door, Sakura cringed. Tsunade's voice was muffled, but audible inside, as was Kakashi's. They were discussing the mission - which wasn't really a mission, more like disaster relief.

She glanced down the sheet, glad to see that he had improved so much, though she still had a fair bit of work ahead of her. His chakra levels were almost back to normal, which was good. Now that he didn't have the Sharingan draining him constantly, he bounced back so much faster.

Replacing his chart, Sakura did a genjutsu to blend in with the wall, waiting for the former Hokage to leave. Heeled sandals clicked towards the door, and she watched as it slid open, trying hard not to move, suppressing her chakra as much as she could.

"You had your chance, brat. I don't agree with every decision he makes either, but he's the one in charge now. Just be glad he listens to advice," said the Godaime closing the door behind her. Sakura felt beads of sweat prickle her forehead, but she didn't twitch or try to wipe it away, feeling the breeze of the other woman's passing, ponytails swishing behind her. Tsunade went into a room a little further down the hall, and Sakura finally relaxed, and slipped into Kakashi's room.

He was propped up on two pillows and reading, his mask up, both arms wrapped with bandages up to the elbow, and gauze taped to either side of his face, one near his left temple, the other over his right cheek. His eye flicked across her face, morose and relieved at the same time, and she weighed how much sympathy she was willing to dole out. He closed his book, and she smiled.

"More or less in one piece. You might still be of use to me," she said, sitting down on his bedside. He'd been burned, badly, while out on a mission to the west of Konoha, where forest fires had been raging on and off all summer. "What happened?"

"Saving someone else's skin. As usual," he said, hoarse, and tugged down his mask with a taped finger, so she could kiss him properly. "My chakra got too low, and the smoke inhalation knocked me out."

Frowning, she unwrapped the bandages and started healing his hand. "I hope your teammates come by to thank you when they get back."

He shook his head in a slight way, informing her that he felt like hadn't done nearly as good a job as he could have. "Don't worry about it. They're still out there and they've got enough problems. It's a nightmare. Everyone was underestimating how bad it was going to spread. If we had more people who could go aerial it would be better. It's hard to gauge how the fire is spreading when everything is under a blanket of black smoke and it's going treetop to treetop. Even the Hyuugas have trouble seeing through."

There were two reasons the Fire Country had it's name. The first was the volcanic activity, the second was the large amount of forested land. This combination meant that drought years often were deadly.

The past two years had been unusually dry, and between the unceasing fiery grumblings of the earth and human carelessness, it didn't take much to make a disaster with so many water-starved trees around. Every shinobi with a good handle on Doton and Suiton techniques had been called to the front lines to help put out this latest flare up, which meant Kakashi had been at the top of the list.

The Katon and Fuuton users weren't totally useless, helping clear brush, and make firebreaks, and everyone else wielded shovels and axes. As the highest-ranking medic, Sakura had to stay in the village at times like these, but there had been plenty for her to do.

"Naruto said more than 80,000 acres have burned outside the town of Ezumatsu." She worked her way up his arm with the green orb of healing chakra, and felt him move over to lean down and kiss her on the neck. His lips were cracked and chapped, and he sighed into her skin.

"Those were the last numbers I heard, too. They evacuated early, and everyone was hoping the fire would stay on the east bank of the river. Did you see Tsunade? She said he's going to go out himself to try to help."

She shook her head. "No, I thought it would be best to avoid her if I wanted to be alone with you. We're going home as soon as you can move."

His eyebrows rose, and the corner of his mouth quirked. "Really? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"My parents have the girls for the rest of the week, so I can just take care of you," she grinned. Once they were alone, she'd take care of him every way she knew how.

"Oh," he said, catching the glint in her eye. "You know once I'm able, I'll be going back out there," he said. It was just like him to throw himself into danger the second he got a chance; as if he wasn't alive unless he was riding a wild surge of adrenaline every waking moment. She understood the sentiment, but this time it wasn't happening.

"No. I don't think you are. Naruto is going to be out of the village, so you have to stay. One of us has to be able act in his stead if something happens here. It may be fire season, but it's also still a busy time of year for contracts. If something else blows up, I'd rather it be you handling it than me, because you've got more experience."

Sakura saw a silver eyebrow raise, and wanted to smack him. Even if no one was allowed to mention her state, Tsunade was too frail, since the day Pein destroyed the village, and Sasuke still wasn't trusted by a good portion of the villagers. She and Kakashi were now the two strongest shinobi in the village after Naruto and Sasuke.

"Not to mention I've been in and out of this place at all hours lately because of the fires. Trying to keep things relatively normal for the girls - by myself - for the past two weeks without you has been, I admit, a bit challenging," she said. "I can handle it, but I'll be stretched very thin."

Kakashi still looked at her askance. She was expecting him to counter with the argument that she actually had worked one-on-one with the Godaime for almost four years, and therefore a far better grasp of what the job of Hokage entailed, but he didn't. "You're serious."

Her hands moved over his chest, and she sunk her chakra deep, relieved to find the damage to his lungs wasn't too extensive. "I'm completely, utterly, deadly serious. You almost died again. It's not playing hooky, it's recovering in a reasonable amount of time along with shouldering some of Naruto's administrative duties if necessary. You aren't going to lose face."

Sighing, he leaned back against the pillows again, letting her work. "So I'm supposed to sit inside the walls and be fawned over by my wife, while everyone else is out risking their lives?"

"You make it sound like torture. You've done more for this village than anyone I know, who isn't dead or Naruto. Shikamaru and Tenzou are perfectly capable of delegating resources on the field, and once Naruto arrives and puts his back into it, who knows what will happen." She really wished the image of a thousand Narutos pissing on the fire hadn't immediately popped into her mind, but that was the sort of man he was.

"You're saying everyone will survive without me."

"Doesn't it at least feel good knowing it takes three men to take your place?" She grinned a little, but it was weak. They both knew he was nearly past his prime, and his knowledge and experience counted for more than his physical abilities these days. Not to say that in his forties he wasn't one of the most formidable ninjas in the world.

Kakashi narrowed his eye at her. "You're just trying massage my ego now."

"I could massage something else, but I'd prefer to go home first."

"Hmm, well, it sounds like you've already got this all worked out."

"You've been unconscious for thirty-six hours. Naruto and I had a long talk, and there's no reason both of you have to be there. Konoha still has to be able to function normally." She wasn't going to tell him about the raging and crying part, because if he didn't know her well enough to remember how she reacted when her loved ones were hurt in the past, he'd definitely been away too long and possibly brain-damaged.

"I guess there are two very cute little girls I wouldn't mind seeing once you're done with me," he said. Sakura noticed that warm, fond glow to his face that nothing else could produce, when he spoke of them.

"Yes, and you need to have a talk with Natsuki." If she recalled correctly, Kakashi had already graduated the ninja academy around her age, and Sakura was starting to wonder if Natsuki was aware of this fact and was rankled by it.

"Oh?"

"She's been acting up in class, saying all of her classmates are stupid and that she's bored," Sakura said, feeling irritated just thinking about it. She didn't really understand her daughter, and she wondered if she ever would.

Kakashi chuckled. "I told you I knew by the time she was two, she was taking after me."

"Yes, but she's not you, and things are different from when you were a kid. She may not even see combat until she's a teenager, if that's what she even specializes in." Sakura knew both of her children were going to become kunoichi, but she didn't have to pretend to like knowing that someday they would be putting themselves in mortal danger.

"Ah, things were so much simpler when all a person had to worry about was living to see the next day. I'll talk to her."

"Good. I don't care if she wants to try to test out of the academy, but she needs to at least attempt to make friends. Give me your other arm." Sakura watched Kakashi's expression grow thoughtful as she shifted her chakra down into his right hand, where the damage was the worst. Under the bandages the skin was nearly gone in some places and his palm and fingers were a red and white mass of burns and blisters. "Have you been able to bend your fingers?"

"I haven't tried," he said moving his wrist a little and wincing. "I can still feel it a little even with you dampening the pain."

She nodded. "This is going to take a while. Do you think you can walk?"

"We're leaving now?"

She stopped and tapped her chin with her finger. "Hmm, let me see - either you can have hospital food and a hospital bed and no sex, or you can have carryout from Ayame's new restaurant, our soft, warm futon and me re-enacting Chapter 12 from Icha Icha Violence."

He leaned down until their foreheads touched and they were eye to eye. "You're a very naughty medic, I hope you know," he said, and kissed her.

Smiling, she tugged at the collar of her red blouse. "Black kimono or red?"

"Black. I've got enough chakra, I'll teleport home," he said.

Sakura nodded. "Go straight to bed. I'll pick up dinner on the way home," she said, watching him disappear in an eager puff of smoke.

Once she'd gotten him good and sexed and healed and fed, she might have finally have built up the nerve to tell him she was pregnant again.


	13. Coming Home

A/N: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Cursing the cold that made his gloves stiff and the ground slippery with ice, Kakashi bounded towards home.

Their house was located in north central Konoha – he and Sakura had chosen it for its close proximity to the Hokage's tower and the hospital. He'd just dropped off his report so at least this last trip was short. Making his way over the walkways and roofs, he finally landed in front of an enclosed porch. He kicked off the bit of slush that had caught in the spikes of his boots, and started unlacing them, slipping them off by the door. The warmth of the foyer melted into his bones along with a sense of relief.

Home. She'd left a light on for him.

It was three a.m. Sakura would be asleep, the girls would be asleep, the baby – well his son wasn't a good sleeper, or at least he hadn't been when Kakashi left, but he would probably be out for another hour or two. How much had he grown since he'd left?

Kakashi's latest mission hadn't exactly been a failure; it had been rather drawn out though because of some faulty intelligence. Which was why he hadn't seen his family in a month.

He sighed, and rubbed his remaining eye, avoiding the empty socket on the left. He'd just finished having an argument with the Hokage over some details of the mission, which hadn't been communicated until it was almost too late. The Nanadaime wasn't explaining why things had turned out the way they did, and it made Kakashi wonder if he was protecting someone. If Naruto was covering for Sasuke again.

Maybe it was time to take a break and get away from the politics for a while. Not retirement - a Konoha shinobi didn't retire - but a break might be in order. More than a month, less than a year. A sabbatical. He was forty-five and past his prime, no one would look at him askance for it. Sakura had told him he needed it. And then she'd said that he was stubborn.

No more stubborn than she was. He shook his head. The woman had gone into labor while she was working on a patient, she'd waited so long to take her maternity leave this time. At least she'd already been at the hospital.

The soft tatami mats muffled his steps as he passed through the dim parlor, past the kitchen and into the bedroom. He stripped off bits of his uniform as he walked - gloves, hitai-ate, hip packs, coat, shirt, undershirt - dropping it all onto the seat of the chair by the bedroom door.

He felt grungy and considered taking a shower, but regardless of how bad he probably smelled, he really needed to sleep. His brain was already floating him to a space somewhere between states of consciousness.

Groggy, he pulled on his pajamas knowing in a few hours there would be two pale-haired girls jumping on him, insisting he come see something or another or half-dropping breakfast on him. Sakura would laugh and smile wryly and not ask when he was leaving again, but would get that look in her eyes.

Kakashi slid under the blanket next to her on the futon, careful not to let too much cold air underneath. She shifted, and her hand reached out for his. She sighed contentedly in her sleep once their fingers were interlaced, and he smiled to himself and kissed her hair.

Somewhere, in the space between waking and dreaming it was like he'd never left.


End file.
